Incarnate

You would think when you are trying to rip off "The Exorcist" you would do every thing you can to avoid direct comparison to one of the worst sequels of all time, "Exorcist II: The Heretic".

Nope, 2016's snoozer INCARNATE manages to feature a scientist who hooks up to monitors (and a machine that goes...bing") and sync up with the minds of possessed folks.

All kinds of bad film flashbacks of Richard Burton chasing Linda Blair through locusts in DC come to mind. It will also inspire recall of a much better film, 1984's 'Dreamscape" with Dennis Quaid.

This time its terrific actor Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Midway) needing to fire his agent for landing him in the role of Dr. Ember, who's burning for a fight against an uber-Demon (aren't they all?) that's destroyed his family.

Young teen Cameron (David Mazouz who plays Bruce Wayne on "Gotham") is currently housing said dark spirit and his Mom Lindsey (Carice van Houten of "Game of Thrones") is none too happy about it.

That's a lot of pretty good actors stranded in a screenplay possessed by underwritten characters and overly complicated plotting.

The rules of Ember's connections with the possessed in the dream state seem to constantly change and the demon is only occasionally that interesting, let alone scary.

The PG-13 rating keeps it from ever really moving into gore or big scares.

Eckhart and company deserve better.

Filmed in 2013 and not released for three years, it shows serious signs of editing by committee and lots of tampering.

It's a rare misstep for Blumhouse Productions. They've revolutionized the horror genre with films like "The Conjuring" "The Purge", "Get Out" and this year's "The Invisible Man".

Their films are usually smart, lean, fun and engaging.

Nobody's perfect.

INCARNATE is incompetent and gets a D.